'You know him through me, and cannot but have thoughts about him, good or bad,' she exclaimed, with an irritable toss of her head, dropping her hand.
'Well, betwixt you and me,' said the commander, turning to take a view of his house, 'I don't like him.'
'Oh, I knew it would be so!' she exclaimed. 'He is much too handsome. Had I appeared in the company of an old man of sixty, with a brown wig down his back, and a yellow nose down his face, you would have found him a welcome presence.'
The commander did not readily lose his temper. 'I do not like this man because I do not like his manner of losing fifteen hundred pounds—the property of others. It is strange. It is peculiar. It is memorable. And I recollected it, as you may have observed, when we were seated.'
'Was it good taste?' said the girl, slightly sneering.
'Oh, we don't live in these parts to cultivate what you call taste! We speak the truth—or should.'
'What do you want to imply, father?'
The commander looked at the ocean and grinned.
'You mean to say,' continued the girl, 'that Captain Jackman knocked himself down and robbed his owners of fifteen hundred pounds?'